Bobspapa, you lucky bastid!
Hey,
I had the pleasure to ride my friend Ian's (ION TORPEDO on the DML) 1098 last Sunday. We started out from MotoCorsa (THE Ducati shop in Portland) and headed west towards Scapoose on HWY 30. I was highly aware that the 1098 has twice the HP of my Monster, so I took it easy. Since this was through the city and parts of the highway are frequently patrolled, I didn't get it out of 3rd gear, 70mph. This part lasted about 20 minutes.
We stopped for gas in Scapoose, Ian asked me why I didn't open it up. I had visions of wadding his bike or flashing red & blue lights. But the best part was coming up.
Once we got on the Scapoose-Vernonia RD, things started looking up. We passed a car that was in front of us, and then hit a strait stretch. "Let's see what she's got", I thought, and opened her up.
The speedo soon read 120mph, and I was in 4th and nowhere near the redline. Time to back it down, as the twisties are coming up. The first couple of corners, I took at about my usual pace, or a little bit above. The 1098 seemed fine, and I decided to increase the pace.
Bingo! Man does the 1098 love to be pushed! I was soon hitting the corners at 15mph faster than I would on my Monster and the 1098 was eating them up. Transitions were smooth and the throttle response on exiting corners was outstanding. The bike felt like it was on rails in the corners. I'm sure I made that whole stretch of the ride with a grin on my face.
Too soon the road came to an end, and I pulled over to wait for the rest of the group. Jerry (PDXM900) pulled up on his 916 as I got off the 1098, and said I just took off from the group. My response, besides the shit eating grin was "It's all the 1098, that bike is confidence inspiring!"
Now I now why Joel has that big silly grin on his face in all the pictures of him and his 1098. [cheeky]
Krolik
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